Music for the Soul Concert Series/Sat Feb 5th/ Jean Rohe and Rogerio Boccato

I am thrilled to be producing a concert for one of my former piano students-Jean Rohe and her friend Rogerio Boccato who is a wonderful Brazilian percussionist on Sat Feb 5th 8PM at Allwood Community Church in Clifton, NJ.
Jean is an amazing young woman who is not only a brilliant songwriter and wonderful vocalist, but she also plays many instruments, French Horn, mandolin/guitars and of course the piano.

Jean started piano lessons with me when she was in the fifth grade and continued on through her junior year in high school. Her brother also studied with me and is a very fine vocalist as well.

I remember that with Jean we did the usual piano repertory and then one day she brought in a lead sheet for the song "Orange Colored Sky" and told me she was working on it (as a vocalist) but would like to be able to play and accompany herself. I told her that she would have to switch gears and learn about chord symbols and how to build them, how to play them and sing at the same time-and she said yes-that's what she wanted to learn. Somewhere in her sophomore or junior year of high school she wrote the music, recorded and released her first cd with another vocalist friend of hers. After that, it was Smith College,then the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and the Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts-where she graduated with degrees from both and was chosen as the speaker for the graduating class for all of the schools that year-some of you may remember her speech which was nationally covered by Keith Olberman, The Huffington Post, to the 2006 Montreux Jazz Festival Shure Vocal Competition 2nd place and audience choice awards, to a 2009 Blue Mountain Center Artist in Residency, to traveling around the world and being an activist for human rights and the environment.

I always tell my piano studio parents that being a piano teacher is a privilege. I am usually the only teacher they have for so many years continuously, and I get to watch them grow up. From the adorable cute elementary school age, to the hormonally charged junior high years, to the "I'm ready to learn about the world" high school years and if I'm really lucky onto young adulthood.

It all starts with "these are the white keys and the black keys and can you tell me how the black keys are grouped?" Or maybe, "this is the bass clef and this is the treble clef, your left hand plays the bottom staff and your right hand plays the top staff and middle C is right in the middle-just like it is on the piano"-and away we go. Through all the different styles of music and the readiness and maturity to learn different styles of music. No matter how everything ends up, as long as they can read the music, play the piano and express themselves through the music of their choice, I am happy, I feel as though I have done my job. It is the proverbial "icing on the cake" when I get to pay back that privilege by doing something like this-producing a concert-life is good!

And I just want to add a shout out of thanks to her parents Ann and Jimmy who are also wonderful singers, who faithfully brought her and her brother to the lessons and to the recitals. Wonderful things happen when parents are dedicated and supportive-we piano teachers can't do it without you!
To learn more about both of these wonderful performers you can go to Jean Rohe and to Rogerio Boccato

Music for the Soul Concert Series presents:
Vocalist Jean Rohe and Brazilian Percussionist Rogerio Boccato
Sat Feb 5th 8PM
Allwood Community Church
100 Chelsea Rd
Clifton, NJ 07012
973.777.6360
$10 donation
Meet the artists after the concert and light refreshments
http://www.allwoodcommunitychurch.com/

Listening To Music

This fall marks the beginning of my 29th year of teaching people how to play the piano. So much in our world of has changed and all of those changes have naturally affected the world of music. But the basic elements of music are still true and the piano is still the piano.

The way we listen to music has seen a dramatic change. It’s a 21st century version of Pythagoras’s belief in the music of the spheres when we summon for the music on our cell phones and computers- it just appears out of the universe-quite remarkable actually. But are we really listening?

My childhood listening experiences ranged from church choirs, school choruses, band concerts in the parks and parades, and professional musicians who performed in school assemblies. I remember those great television variety shows of the 60’s and 70’s-always lots of music there and of course PBS-which really brought culture into the home-very important when you’re growing up in a semi -small town in the Midwest.

My favorite listening experience was with my Dad. On Sundays, after Sunday dinner, and after any chores that needed to be done, my Dad would take a break to sit in his chair, close his eyes and listen to music. This was also known as “don’t bug your father he’s taking a nap time”. But I would hang out on the couch and listen too.
When he realized that I was enjoying the music he would tell me who the performers were and the name of the composition and if there were any special stories-something like when he first heard the song or if he saw the performers in concert.

When was the last time you really listened to music? No multi-tasking, no computer, not in the car while driving, not in the shower? We learn so much when we listen intently to music and our brains truly enjoy being able to be free to following the phrasing, the rhythms, the tempos, the harmonies or no harmonies, the textures and timbres. Not only that but every time we listen to a “new” piece of music our brains carve out new pathways and that really makes it happy!

Our hearts identify with the emotions while recalling a memory or a wishful dream. Some of us see color or imagine stories. Some of us take a nap and are entertained by fanciful dreams and some of us solve the problems of the day. Some of us get so inspired by the music that we get up and get going with a new idea on a project we’ve been meaning to start or finish.

If you are a parent with a child who is studying music, imagine taking one afternoon a week-maybe an hour or a half hour-and that becomes listening time with your child. Tell the story about the music, who is performing it, what instruments are on the recording-maybe the song has a special significance in your life. Then just lay back and listen-totally uninterrupted. And when “music listening time” is over-don’t grill your children about whether they liked the music or any other questions for that matter. They’ll tell you if they want to-and besides-you’re breaking the continuous dreaming in the brain that is still processing what it just heard-and might want to keep thinking about it-just to see where that goes……